A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention is directed to data processing systems and methods, and more particularly, to a system, method, and computer program product for reducing airport equipment shortage and surplus conditions at an airport by facilitating the exchange of airport equipment among different carriers based on reported equipment shortages and surpluses of each carrier.
At any given airport, air carriers, including both passenger airlines and freight carriers, and also independent ground handlers, are often faced with shortages of some equipment and surpluses of other equipment, such as containers, vehicles, etc. These equipment shortages and surpluses hinder efficient operation and adversely affect operational costs.
A carrier faced with a shortage of certain equipment typically has only three choices to avoid a service failure: (1) buy more equipment, (2) lease equipment to cover the shortage, or (3) reposition equipment from other airports, if possible. Many carriers opt to reposition to avoid additional equipment purchases or leases, but repositioning is not always the most cost effective solution. Indeed, in many cases, it might have been possible to lease the needed equipment at a much lower cost and in a more timely manner. The problem is that carriers faced with equipment shortages often do not have timely information regarding equipment available for lease.
Surpluses of equipment are also undesirable. A carrier must pay for equipment whether that equipment is being used or not. When equipment sits idle, the carrier is not operating at optimum efficiency.
Shortage and surplus conditions are not easily solved. Equipment requirements of a given carrier can change daily, and therefore, repositioning equipment to address a shortage one day may result in a surplus the next day. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for reducing carrier equipment shortage and surplus conditions at an airport to enable carriers to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. The present invention satisfies this need.
Equipment shortage and surplus conditions among a plurality of carriers at an airport are reduced by a system, method, and computer program product that receives a report of selected equipment shortages and surpluses from each carrier, matches reported equipment shortages from the different carriers with reported equipment surpluses from other carriers, and proposes exchanges of equipment between the carriers where matches are found.
The system of the present invention comprises a user interface accessible by each carrier via a respective client device, a database for storing the reports received from each carrier, and a matching engine that matches reported equipment shortages with reported surpluses. Each carrier uses its client device to report its shortages and surpluses of selected equipment for a next planning horizon. After collecting the reports from each carrier, the matching engine matches shortages with surpluses and then recommends exchanges of equipment between carriers to remedy equipment imbalances in the most efficient way. In a preferred embodiment, the matching process comprises a three phase approach. Preferably, the exchanges of equipment between carriers will take the form of short-term equipment leases, and the system will also provide lease management services to track the leased equipment and to manage associated financial aspects, such as billing. The system also preferably comprises a real-time processor to perform up-to-the-minute searches for alternate equipment with real-time reporting capabilities.
The system, method, and computer program product of the present invention can be used to provide an equipment information and exchange service to the various carriers at an airport. The service could be provided by a third party, but preferably, the service is provided to the carriers by the airport authority. Preferably, the carriers that desire to use the service will pay the airport authority for this service. Service fees may consist of several components. For example, the first part may be a fixed fee to join the service, i.e., an initiation or sign-up fee. The second component may be a monthly service fee to use the service, and the third component may be a per transaction fee that is applicable when a recommended exchange takes place between two carriers. The airport authority may require the carriers to participate in this service as part of their contracts for use of the airport.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become evident hereinafter.